Paper 2 Psychology AQA Revision Notes

Approaches

Origins of Psychology
Wundt and Introspection:
Introspection – A means of learning about one’s own currently ongoing mental states or
processes. Introspective knowledge is often held to be more immediate or direct than
sensory knowledge.
 Features 3 conditions
- Mentality condition – aims to generate beliefs about mental states and events
- First person condition – aims to generate beliefs about the individuals own mind
- Temporal proximity condition – generates beliefs and descrives the individuals
current mental life
 Wundt isolated conscious thoughts into basic structures of thoughts, processes and
images, in a process called structuralism
 Method of data recording was highly scientific (eg the same stimulus was used each
time, allowing for replication under standardised conditions
 Thoughts and feelings are non observable and because of this, the researcher makes
inferences about the processes = they are unscientific


The Behaviourist Approach

 An approach to explaining behaviour which suggests that all behaviour is acquired
and maintained through classical and operant conditioning therefore only behaviour
which can be objectively measured and observed is studied eg Skinners box
- Due to Watson and Skinner disagreeing with the subjective nature of Wundts
introspective methods and the inability to formulate general laws and universal
principles based on his observations

Assumptions of behaviourism
1. Behaviourists also believe that all behaviour, whether it be adaptive or maladaptive,
is learned in the same way, through stimulus response links
2. Any behaviour can be ‘unlearned’ using the same processes by which it was learned

Classical Conditioning
 Involves training of reflex responses to appear in the presence of a neutral stimulus.
Involves learning to associate the original reflex response with a novel stimulus, one
it hasn’t previously been associated with. Classical conditioning involves direct
learning through association
- BEFORE conditioning, unconditioned stimulus produces and unconditioned response
- DURING conditioning, unconditioned stimulus was repeatedly paired with a neutral
stimulus to produce the same unconditioned response
- ASSOCIATION made between the unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus

, - AFTER conditioning, the neutral stimulus became the conditioned stimulus,
producing the conditioned response

Pavlov:
 Showed dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell if that sound was
repeatedly presented at the same time that they were given food
- Dogs were presented with the food and they salivates
- Food= unconditioned stimulus, salivation = unconditioned response
- Pavlov sounded the bell (neutral stimulus) before giving food
- After a few pairings, dog salivated when heard bell, even with no food
- Bell = conditioned stimulus, salivation = conditioned response
 Dogs had learned to associate the bell with the food and the sound of the bell and
salivation was triggered by the sound of the bell

Operant Conditioning:
 Type of learning which a new voluntary behaviour is associated with a consequence,
reinforcement makes the behaviour more likely to occur, while punishmen makes it
less likely to occur. Voluntary behaviours are actions that can be controlled by the
organisms


Contribution to our Understanding of human behaviour
 Maintenance of phobias
- Negative re-I for cements explains the maintenance of phobias through avoidance of
a phobic stimulus
- Therefore never encountering the unpleasant feeling and is the avoidance of
unpleasant feeling that acts as a reward = every time the individuals encounters
phobic stimulus they avoid it never having to face fear
 Behaviour Modification (token economy)
- Behaviour sharing through successive approximations
- Used in mental hospital and establishments for people with developed mental delay,
form of social skills training that makes life a bit easier for patients and carers
- Eg by ensuring patients are trained to make their own beds or bush teeth properly
early in morning
 Maintenance of gambling behaviour
- Vaariable ratio reinforcement provides an explanation for why addicted gamblers
continue to gamble and this is based on the fact that the reward achieved isn’t
predictable
- Increasing gamblers condition that every time they gamble a reward is possible

Positive reinforcement = receiving a reward
Negative reinforcement = occurs when performing an action stops something unpleasant
happening

,  The Skinner Box
- Hungry rat placed in a cage
- Every time he activated the level, a food pellet fell into the food dispenser (positive
reinforcement)
- Rats quickly learned to go straight to the level after a f ew times being put in the box
- Suggests positive reinforcement increases likelihood of behaviour being repeated

- 2ND EXPERIMENT: Rat placed in a cage which they were subjected to an
uncomfortable electrical current

- As he moved around the cage the rat hit the lever, = immediately switched off the
electrical current (negative reinforcement)

- Rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times being put in the box

- Suggests negative reinforcement increases likelihood of behaviour being repeated



Social Learning Theory
 Behaviour is also the product of observational learning
 Through the observation of the consequences of the behaviour of appropriate and
pertinent role models
 This concept of vicarious reinforcement proposes that observed behaviours that
gains a reward is imitated, whilst observed behaviour that is punished tends to be
ignored
 Central to this theory is the concept of self efficacy (belief that the individual is
capable of successfully carrying out the modelled behaviour)
 Bandura proposed the modelling process involves several steps and these
constituted the mediating processes = indicates cognitive processes are involved in
behaviours
- Attention = for an individual to learn something they must pay attention to features
of modelled behavjour
- Retention = humans need to be able to remember details of the behaviour in order
to learn and later reproduce the behaviour
- Reproduction = organise your responses in accordance with modelled behaviour
- Motivation = must be incentive driving individual for production of behaviour, even
with all above person won’t engage without this

Factors increasing likelihood of imitation:
- Similarity of model to observer
- Model has desirable characteristics
- Models behaviour positively reinforced
- Models behaviour directly reinforced

, Contribution to our understanding of human behaviour:

 Development of phobias
- When a role model is observed, avoiding fear of confrontation with a dog the
observer will also learn to avoid confrontation with a dog to achieve the resultant
reduction of fear for themselves
 Aggression
- Bandura showed 3-4 yr old children when observing a role model beating up.a Bobo
doll = more likely too imitate the aggressive behaviour if the role model has similar
qualities to them
- Lead to implementation of paccies eg 9. Clock water shed as children imitate
 Gender
- Socially constructed to come about when a child imitates behaviour of a same sex
parent since they observe the rewards they get from the behaviour that is gener
appropriate

Banduras Research:




The Cognitive Approach
Assumptions:
 Mental processes can be studied scientifically
 Mental processes can be regarded as information processing
 Mind works similarly to computer = allows computer analogy to the throw light on
cognition
 Introspection = valid scientific way of studying cognitive processes
 Conscious and unconscious aspects of thought act as mediational processes between
stimulus and response
 Brain, especially damaged areas, affects cognitions and cognitive processes

Study of Internal Mental Processes:
 Not directly observable = cognitive psychologists employ computer models to
describe human info processing, with the ‘input’ from the environment processed in
a way that results in an observable ‘output’ or behavioural response
 Scientific approach important = cognitive psychologists reject use of conventional
introspection as a technique of investigation
 Thought processes are not directly observable, they can be studied by making
inferences about the thought processes people are experiencing


Techniques used to study IMPs